More Canadians Discovering Barbados

A group of top executives from the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) were in Canada this week meeting with key suppliers and airline partners as the island gears up for the upcoming winter 2015-2016 season. BTMI’s chairman, Alvin Jemmott led the group, which also included BTMI’s CEO William Griffith, its director of marketing, Robert Chase and director Canada, Peter Mayers.

At an event in Toronto, Jemmott told his audience that Barbados was having a “phenomenal” year from Canada and the island has been “very encouraged” by the Canadian market’s performance.

The chairman also praised the team at BTMI’s Canadian office for their efforts to make Barbados the “destination of choice in the Caribbean.”

And Jemmott added that Barbados is “seeing growth in 2015 at rates never seen before” out of the Canadian market.

Observing that in order to succeed in tourism, destinations need committed partners selling the destination, BTMI’s CEO Griffith told the Toronto gathering that between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2015, preliminary results indicate that Canadian arrivals to Barbados are up by 22.9% – that’s 8,500 more visitors for a total of 45,484 Canadian arrivals during the first half of 2015.

And Griffith said that Barbados “intends to do even better in the next six months.”

Barbados growth has been spurred by additional air lift from both Air Canada and WestJet; significant hotel development on the island which includes the likes of Sandals Barbados as well as its plans for a Beaches resort on the island.

In total, Griffith said that Barbados will see a total investment of US$1-billion between now and 2019 that will bring 2,300 hotel rooms online.

Add the huge variety of annual events – such as the Crop Over Festival; Barbados Open Water Festival; Food, Wine & Rum Festival; Run Barbados; and lots more – and it’s no wonder that Barbados has done well and, one would suspect, will continue to do well out of Canada moving forward.

Seen in the photo, from l to r, are Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.’s Peter Mayers, Alvin Jemmott and William Griffith during their visit to Toronto.

For more, go to http://www.visitbarbados.org .